The M23 captured Goma, a city of nearly two million people, last week after a lightning advance in DR Congo's eastern region. At least 700 people in the city were killed and close to 3,000 injured as the rebels clashed with DR Congo's army and its allies, according to the UN and the Congolese government.

A rebel alliance claimed the capture of the biggest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich eastern region this week, pushing back against resistance from government troops backed by regional and UN intervention forces.

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed on Monday they captured eastern Congo’s strategic city of Goma, the hub of a region containing trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that remains largely untapped.